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Sylvan Tutor Discussion

1 day ago

Thanks for sharing this great deck list and keeping us updated with the changelog.
I do want to discuss some points:

Sylvan Tutor vs Chord of Calling: I really love the flexibility of casting chord as an instant. I haven't tested sylvan yet, but since the target comes on top of the library at sorcery speed, your opponents have a turn to react and set up. It's the same with Brutalizer Exarch, but he is more flexibel with his removal option. Chord let's you set up a combo at the opponents end step and it's also great for responding to enemy removal (safekeeper).

Only 3 counterspells: in my experience, what really hurts Animar is a mass removal. Besides pact and force, I run Swan Song, Spell Pierce and Stubborn Denial. Maybe it's a meta game call, but I always fell safe to pump out creature spells with a counter as backup.

My list is a lot different then yours, it's too much to discuss every card, but I do want to mention 2 of my favorites:

Emrakul, the Promised End: great "finisher" spell. She doesn't win on the spot, but usually "mindslavering" an opponents turn will lead to a win later on.

Tishana, Voice of Thunder: Best card draw. Early she is easier to cast then "good ol' Kozi" and most of the times you can draw more then 4 cards. I haven't seen the "annihilator bonus" of Kozi in a long time, even though I run Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots. He kind of always gets removed when he shows up :)

6 days ago

Yes, the true terms for the control I specified are "Permission" and "Stax", the reason I separate them is because the point of this isn't to delve into the technical theory behind gameplay, instead I want to be able to build a base for any player trying to make a cEDH deck. I can build up a deck with extreme ease if I know three things:

The Colors of the deck (The Commander)

The Base to use (The Archetype)

The Win Condition (The Combo)

I can build up any commander deck using those 3 things in mind, and I built up plenty of examples for them. I went over cEDH staples because I wanted to show the type of cards you should be interested in, though there are tons more than I said.

You mention countermagic in combo decks, but I suggested that if you look at "So, How do I Build Combo?", so I don't think I ever disagreed there. I also wen't over beatdown in stax, it was in the "Pick a Win Condition!" strategy where I mention blood pod being a beatdown strategy. This isn't to say they don't run Karmic Guide/Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker/Felidar Guardian/Birthing Pod combo as a finisher separate to beatdown.

Again, in this list I have made no claims of any card not being cEDH worthy or anything, there is a use for most cards in mtg, not all, Eager Cadet will have to sit this one out, but Eidolon of Blossoms could be in an enchantress deck, and I guess a dredge deck could use the Harmonize to great ability, I never claim a card can't work.

Okay, this next one is the hardest... Edric, Spymaster of Trest and aggro. Yes, it is a deck that wins by dealing combat damage, yes it is a creature based deck that wins... "fast." No, it isn't aggro. Here is my argument, the deck is an extra turns deck, that has a draw engine based on dealing combat damage. This means that it isn't an aggro deck for two reasons, The goal of the normal Edric, Spymaster of Trest deck isn't to win as fast as possible by setting your opponents' life totals to 0, it is a deck based around being able to draw enough cards in a turn to chain effectively infinite turns together, which wins through use of combat damage as a finisher.

I would claim it is a combo deck, no, it doesn't set up a combo like Time Vault + Voltaic Key + Storm Crow to win a game, but it does effectively the same thing, in the same way a storm deck isn't technically a combo deck, nothing it does goes infinite or does something that was an unintended side effect of two or more cards in conjunction, a storm deck simply uses a lot of cards that synergize well, yet they are considered combo because they play the game with a mindset based on winning as fast as possible (while being protected from interaction) without the use of normal creature swings or general burn.

If you were wondering, I will come back to this primer and revamp it, give me a week though, because I have been working on making a primer for all of EDH... and that will take time.

2 weeks ago

2 weeks ago

Like I've commented before, I think that Chord of Calling can be a pretty frustrating inclusion in Animar. As a budget option though, it is possible for Chord to help you get Ancestral Statue out on turn 4.

Turn 1) land + mana dork. Turn 2) land + Animar. Turn 3) Land + manage to cast 3 creatures. Turn 4) Land. You should now be able to cast Chord where X is 4 to get Statue and bounce it back to your hand. Animar should still be untapped and you'll have 1 mana left over to cast Statue for Animar's 4th counter to set up for infinite counters on Animar.

There are another few situations where Chord can be helpful, but really, it's just a placeholder for when you decide it is worth the monetary investment to get Sylvan Tutor.

2 weeks ago

Despite having Convoke, Chord of Calling is still pretty demanding with its mana cost. I run it, but would be happy to replace it with Sylvan Tutor the first chance I get due to the synergy with Spellseeker and better early-game setup possibilities. Convoke often feels less relevant when a bunch of your early game creatures are already mana dorks.

To its benefit though, Chord is instant speed so it can let you tutor up a Sylvan Safekeeper or Spellskite when your opponent thinks you are tapped out and tries to use spot removal on Animar.

4 weeks ago

Please do!

Hey, if you want to make your deck more competitive, Witch-Maw colors are great for combo.

Hermit Druid is a famous combo, in which if you have no basic lands in your deck, you mill the whole thing into your graveyard. With a turn one Forest + Gemstone Caverns or Lotus Petal or something, by turn 2 you can mill your deck.

Narcomoeba will return from the graveyard to the battlefield, and if you play a land Bloodghast will return too! Fatestitcher can return for a single mana if you need it. As long as you have three creatures, you may flashback Dread Return a Necrotic Ooze back to your library, your whole library is in your graveyard, but remember, Phantasmagorian can discard any cards you may have accidentally drawn.

Other than that, self-mill combo-decks that put their whole library into their graveyard all are able to protect against the likes of Faerie Macabre and stuff of that nature by running Memory's Journey and Deep Analysis and Phantasmagorian, so if they attempt to exile some of your combo, you can shuffle it back into your library, draw it, and discard it all to save yourself! Krosan Reclamation, Think Twice, and stuff of that nature are occasionally run too!

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